The Congress has decided to field sitting Rajya Sabha member and veteran leader Vayalar Ravi for the coming Rajya Sabha poll from Kerala.

Ravi, however, preferred to maintain silence over the development and said he will speak to media only after the national leadership clears his candidature.

The CPI-M have finalised their youth leader K.K. Raghesh who had contested and lost the Kannur Lok Sabha seat in 2009.

Ravi’s name was cleared after Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, state Congress chief V.M. Sudheeran and Home Minister R. Chennithala — representing the various factions within the party’s state unit — sat down in a meeting to finalise the candidature.

Ravi has been having an uninterrupted run from 2003 onwards and this will be his fourth term in the upper house.

The notification for the Rajya Sabha poll has already been issued and elections are scheduled for the next month.